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Greetings Dakka.

I recently acquired an assortment of space marines from ebay, and while the paint job isn't terrible, the colors are all wrong.

I've heard you can strip the paint off minis, but I'm unsure of the method and materials.

So...anyone got any tips? Help is greatly appreciated.

Get you a bucket, a pair of those long rubber yellow gloves and a old tooth brush. Next buy you a bottle of this stuff:


or this stuff:



Fill the bucket with some water and the stuff and drop all your minis in it for a few days. Get them out with the gloves and scrub them with a toothbrush under some water. Put you something in the drain like a strainer to catch bitz that might fall off.

1. Purchase some simple green
2. Submerge models in Simple green overnight **
3. Give them a brush with a rough toothbrush
4. Observe models are now grey (or black if sprayed with proper primer***)

**metal will take longer to remove paint than plastic, leave plastic overnight, for metal I leave overnight, give it a brush and then repeat until all paint removed
*** I have left plastics sprayed with GW black spray over night and have been able to remove the paint and leave the primer completely intact.

Edit: I don't water down my simple green, some people do

Plastic or metal?

This makes a big difference in what can be used.

Also, whether they were painted with enamel or acrylic paints - as some more gentle cleaners will struggle with enamels.

Well if there metal. And I mean Metal only. Use a can of carburetor cleaner. About 4 buck anywhere.
Note!(Use eye protection and gloves. Stuff is nasty)

Spray into Jar. Wait an hour. Everything just falls off. paint, glue, base coat, everything. This stuff will melt plastic though. So take everything you don't want melted off. (Like Bases)

Simple green takes several days of soaking. But is the best if you want undamaged models.

Thanks for the info everyone.

Some are metal, some are plastic, some are a mix. I'm unsure of the paint used, but it is a pretty thick coating.

Looks like this simple green stuff is the way to go for my first attempt. I'll see how the minis turn out.

Thanks again.